building radical soil

NYU’s Latinx Project is hosting an exhibit with the subtext Sustainability as a Form of Resistance in Art. Yes is all I can say to that.

This new group exhibition explores how Latin, African, and Asian diaspora artists promote sustainability beyond borders. Building Radical Soil features nine artists meditating on ancient and contemporary methods of conservation — from urban farming and solar power to decolonial cartographies. Archival documents from community organizing events accompany site-specific murals and installations, which are worked into the gallery infrastructure, positioning collective art-making as an antidote to political domination.

One of the featured artists, Nyugen E. Smith, created the breathtaking piece at left. Smith composed this fictional map based on the Caribbean. The work is made with Trinidadian and Zambian soil, among other materials, on paper, and stitched pink and gold thread between slipshod huts. Groups of “bundle houses” are arranged by shades of red and blue, while the threading demarcates borders — though the spacing between stitches results in dotted lines, hinting at impermanence.

• “Posits that resistance begins at the ground level, [ed note: literally with the soil] and that truly progressive traditions will outlast the neoliberal era”

• Building Radical Soil continues at the Latinx Project (285 Mercer Street, Noho, Manhattan) through May 5. The exhibition was curated by Sofía Shaula Reeser-del Rio. Exhibit is also online.